Come on guys, having cancer is a blast. Think of chemotherapy as yummy yummy candy that they stick a big painful needle in your arm to give you! And that bald look is so trendy now, and it's really great for the summer!

How dare this photographer guy suggest it's awful and painful and brutal?

jake_lex:Come on guys, having cancer is a blast. Think of chemotherapy as yummy yummy candy that they stick a big painful needle in your arm to give you! And that bald look is so trendy now, and it's really great for the summer!

How dare this photographer guy suggest it's awful and painful and brutal?

Don't forget that cancer is never terminal! And to suggest otherwise through some trumped up photographs, why, that's just Un-American.

If these photos were left up, the Terrorists would have won. You don't want the terrorists to win, do you, Comrade?

I come in contact with a breast cancer support group on a weekly basis. They are lovely women, but they are also sick women. This article was teeth-grindingly frustrating. The whole 'think positive and everything will be ok' attitude of some well-meaning people is really quite damaging to the patients. They need realistic expectations. They need to grieve, even if they survive. These are healthy human emotions and to deny that cancer can be a hideous killer is irresponsible for a group of people who work with cancer patients.

Some patients and their families don't want to be reminded how bad off things are/will be for them, they are already too well aware of this. THey come there to get support, not to have depressing images shoved in their faces making them feel worse then they already do.

It's great work, but what the patients and those who volunteer/work there want comes first.

Lars The Canadian Viking:Some patients and their families don't want to be reminded how bad off things are/will be for them, they are already too well aware of this. THey come there to get support, not to have depressing images shoved in their faces making them feel worse then they already do.

It's great work, but what the patients and those who volunteer/work there want comes first.

This. Cancer support groups are supposed to support the patient, not give a constant reminder that they might die. They've known that since the moment their oncologist said "it's cancer". There aren't pictures of plane crashes in airports or train wrecks in train stations.

FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

edmo:Some people feel they have the right to not be confronted by anything that is upsetting or that they disagree with. Which explains a lot about certain cable news outlets.

Meanwhile, in the real world...

And those people who don't want to be confronted by anything upsetting probably don't go to cancer support groups. People go to cancer support groups BECAUSE THEY HAVE CANCER AND THEY'RE SCARED AND THEY WANT TO BE SUPPORTED.

ubermensch:edmo: Some people feel they have the right to not be confronted by anything that is upsetting or that they disagree with. Which explains a lot about certain cable news outlets.

Meanwhile, in the real world...

And those people who don't want to be mind being confronted by anything upsetting probably don't go to cancer support groups. People go to cancer support groups BECAUSE THEY HAVE CANCER AND THEY'RE SCARED AND THEY WANT TO BE SUPPORTED.

Four Horsemen of the Domestic Dispute:FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

Yeah, that made me scratch my head too. I wonder if they think it's part of cancer chic or something.

Ravengirl:I come in contact with a breast cancer support group on a weekly basis. They are lovely women, but they are also sick women. This article was teeth-grindingly frustrating. The whole 'think positive and everything will be ok' attitude of some well-meaning people is really quite damaging to the patients. They need realistic expectations. They need to grieve, even if they survive. These are healthy human emotions and to deny that cancer can be a hideous killer is irresponsible for a group of people who work with cancer patients.

On the other hand some patients remain convinced that if they stay positive they will beat this thing. Which of course can be pretty horrible when a family member knows it's terminal.

Either way, not acknowledging reality doesn't really do the world a lot of good.

ubermensch:This. Cancer support groups are supposed to support the patient, not give a constant reminder that they might die. They've known that since the moment their oncologist said "it's cancer". There aren't pictures of plane crashes in airports or train wrecks in train stations.

Korzine:Four Horsemen of the Domestic Dispute: FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

Yeah, that made me scratch my head too. I wonder if they think it's part of cancer chic or something.

Chemotherapy for things like breast and ovarian cancer, such as taxol or carboplatin, often does make one's hair fall out. However, it doesn't just fall out all at once, or even at a nice gradual pace. It falls out in clumps. You may have bald spots, thin spots, or a rather uneven head of hair. The only way to make it uniform is to shave it all. It also makes wigs fit better (you know, so you don't attract attention).No, it doesn't help survival (seriously, who thinks that?). But when the choice is bald spots and patchiness or a uniform buzz cut, some opt for the latter.

N-deutetrei:Korzine: Four Horsemen of the Domestic Dispute: FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

Yeah, that made me scratch my head too. I wonder if they think it's part of cancer chic or something.

Chemotherapy for things like breast and ovarian cancer, such as taxol or carboplatin, often does make one's hair fall out. However, it doesn't just fall out all at once, or even at a nice gradual pace. It falls out in clumps. You may have bald spots, thin spots, or a rather uneven head of hair. The only way to make it uniform is to shave it all. It also makes wigs fit better (you know, so you don't attract attention).No, it doesn't help survival (seriously, who thinks that?). But when the choice is bald spots and patchiness or a uniform buzz cut, some opt for the latter.

I have to say I'm willing to support the cancer support center in this. I'm not saying that all imagery for cancer should be upbeat, and that people should focus endlessly on smiling and being happy, but shows of hopelessness could be as wearing as anything else.

Eatin' Queer Fetuses for Jesus:I grew up in Westlake. It's the kind of town where people would rather sit in rush-hour traffic everyday than build a light-rail to downtown, because that would allow the blacks to infiltrate.

Eatin' Queer Fetuses for Jesus:I grew up in Westlake. It's the kind of town where people would rather sit in rush-hour traffic everyday than build a light-rail to downtown, because that would allow the blacks to infiltrate.

Emotions are bad! Who dared try to get emotions out of people! Burn them!

Who is running that place, the Cybermen?

FirstNationalBastard:jake_lex: Come on guys, having cancer is a blast. Think of chemotherapy as yummy yummy candy that they stick a big painful needle in your arm to give you! And that bald look is so trendy now, and it's really great for the summer!

How dare this photographer guy suggest it's awful and painful and brutal?

Don't forget that cancer is never terminal! And to suggest otherwise through some trumped up photographs, why, that's just Un-American.

If these photos were left up, the Terrorists would have won. You don't want the terrorists to win, do you, Comrade?

Thoroughly done in 3.

Reminds me of Barbara Ehrenreich's columns on getting breast cancer and how you could only have positive emotions or else you were considered... well... infectious. :\

I feel that I have a unique perspective about cancer as a 59 year old physician who was diagnosed with metastatic renal cell (kidney) carcinoma this past February. I had been well until 2 months prior to that, when right hip pain developed. When it didn't resolve after a few weeks, I did an x-ray, which was normal. The pain didn't go away after another month, and even though well-meaning friends and colleagues reassured me with comments like "just get new shoes", something had to be causing the pain. I then did an MRI figuring that it would show a herniated disk or some other benign condition. Instead, a large lytic (destructive) lesion was seen in my right sacrum (part of the pelvis) which was clearly the source of the pain. The next day, a total body CT scan showed a large tumor in my right kidney with multiple small pulmonary (lung) nodules. As you might expect, I was devastated, my first thought being whether or not I would be around to see my daughter graduate from HS next year. I then went though the usual five stages of grief, the first being denial--I just couldn't understand how this happened to me--there was no family of cancer, my mother's 93, my father lived to 92, and I never smoked or drank alcohol. In addition, I felt otherwise well and never had any of the textbook symptoms you were supposed to have that might have led to an earlier diagnosis: blood in the urine or pain in the kidney area. I first received radiation therapy to relieve the hip pain and then had a laparoscopic radical nephrectomy 2 weeks later. After a month to heal up, I underwent treatment with high-dose Interleukin 2 in a NYC hospital which was extremely toxic. It took several weeks after the therapy ended for me to feel better. Throughout all this ordeal, I missed 7 weeks of work. I now feel fairly well. Everyone tells me to "think positive" and "keep your chin up", but it's very hard for me to do so as I (unlike a layman) know the facts about the dismal prognosis of my disease (5-20% chance of surviving 5 years). If I'd seen a patient with the exact same constellation of findings, I would've left the exam room and told my nurse "that guy's farked, his days are numbered". I finally resumed a normal schedule with a full patient load this past week and will be undergoing a repeat CT scan in 2 weeks to determine what to do next.

BTW, I believe this image is of a peripheral blood smear, the large cells being diagnostic of acute myelocytic leukemia--the small cells are erythrocytes.

Dahnkster:I have some small cell carcinoma histology slides that will really cheer you up.[upload.wikimedia.org image 850x554]Cancer sucks.

My mom was diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma two weeks ago. She goes in for extensive testing this week to see if they can save part of her kidney. She goes in for a partial or whole nephrectomy in a couple weeks. Cancer sucks.

Vodnik:I feel that I have a unique perspective about cancer as a 59 year old physician who was diagnosed with metastatic renal cell (kidney) carcinoma this past February. I had been well until 2 months prior to that, when right hip pain developed. When it didn't resolve after a few weeks, I did an x-ray, which was normal. The pain didn't go away after another month, and even though well-meaning friends and colleagues reassured me with comments like "just get new shoes", something had to be causing the pain. I then did an MRI figuring that it would show a herniated disk or some other benign condition. Instead, a large lytic (destructive) lesion was seen in my right sacrum (part of the pelvis) which was clearly the source of the pain. The next day, a total body CT scan showed a large tumor in my right kidney with multiple small pulmonary (lung) nodules. As you might expect, I was devastated, my first thought being whether or not I would be around to see my daughter graduate from HS next year. I then went though the usual five stages of grief, the first being denial--I just couldn't understand how this happened to me--there was no family of cancer, my mother's 93, my father lived to 92, and I never smoked or drank alcohol. In addition, I felt otherwise well and never had any of the textbook symptoms you were supposed to have that might have led to an earlier diagnosis: blood in the urine or pain in the kidney area. I first received radiation therapy to relieve the hip pain and then had a laparoscopic radical nephrectomy 2 weeks later. After a month to heal up, I underwent treatment with high-dose Interleukin 2 in a NYC hospital which was extremely toxic. It took several weeks after the therapy ended for me to feel better. Throughout all this ordeal, I missed 7 weeks of work. I now feel fairly well. Everyone tells me to "think positive" and "keep your chin up", but it's very hard for me to do so as I (unlike a layman) know the facts about the dismal prognosis of my disease (5-20% chance of surviving 5 years). If I'd seen a patient with the exact same constellation of findings, I would've left the exam room and told my nurse "that guy's farked, his days are numbered". I finally resumed a normal schedule with a full patient load this past week and will be undergoing a repeat CT scan in 2 weeks to determine what to do next.

BTW, I believe this image is of a peripheral blood smear, the large cells being diagnostic of acute myelocytic leukemia--the small cells are erythrocytes. Dahnkster: I have some small cell carcinoma histology slides that will really cheer you up.[upload.wikimedia.org image 850x554]Cancer sucks.

I posted about my mom before reading your post. I'm sorry for what you are going through. I'm terrified of what they will find when they do my moms surgery. The Urologist told us they won't know how "bad" the cancer is until after the surgery. The tumor on her kidney was found by happenstance after doing a CT scan to diagnos a bad gallbladder.

I lost my dad to cancer 4 years ago, and his sister to cancer many years before that. I imagine the folks that go to a cancer support center can decide for themselves what they'd like hanging on their walls.

dark side of the moon:I posted about my mom before reading your post. I'm sorry for what you are going through. I'm terrified of what they will find when they do my moms surgery. The Urologist told us they won't know how "bad" the cancer is until after the surgery. The tumor on her kidney was found by happenstance after doing a CT scan to diagnose a bad gallbladder.

I wish you the best.

The chances are that your Mom is very lucky, as her kidney tumor was discovered incidentally. Such tumors are usually in an early stage and are curable by surgery. It may even be a benign tumor such as an oncocytoma which can mimic cancer. My first symptom was that of a metastatic lesion, which downgraded me to stage IV, the most advanced stage and the one that has the poorest prognosis. Thanks for your good wishes, BTW.

Four Horsemen of the Domestic Dispute:FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

But for some, when the treatment WILL result in the loss of hair, it's empowering to go ahead and cut it yourself first. Cut some slack peeps.

It's not so much that their patients objected and the photos were removed that gets to me, it's the fact that they approved the exhibition without, apparently, bothering to look at what was going to be displayed, even though the photographer said he e-mailed them all the pictures beforehand. They're idiots, if that's true.

Korzine: Four Horsemen of the Domestic Dispute: FYI Noob Cancer Patients:1. Part of cancer treatment doesn't have to include the shaving of your head so you can attention whore.2. Not all cancer treatments cause the thinning of hair.3. Shaving your head doesn't increase your chances of survival.

Yeah, that made me scratch my head too. I wonder if they think it's part of cancer chic or something.

Chemotherapy for things like breast and ovarian cancer, such as taxol or carboplatin, often does make one's hair fall out. However, it doesn't just fall out all at once, or even at a nice gradual pace. It falls out in clumps. You may have bald spots, thin spots, or a rather uneven head of hair. The only way to make it uniform is to shave it all. It also makes wigs fit better (you know, so you don't attract attention).No, it doesn't help survival (seriously, who thinks that?). But when the choice is bald spots and patchiness or a uniform buzz cut, some opt for the latter.

This! One day I had a full head of hair, the next day it was coming out in the comb, or if I ran my fingers through it. I showed my husband, and we promptly decided to take the beard trimmer and just take it all out. I wore a bandana and ball cap for 6 weeks before anybody figured out I was not trying to make some sort of odd fashion statement. So, please, continue to call women with shaved heads "attention whores". I hope no one you love ever has to go through it.

I feel that I have a unique perspective about cancer as a 59 year old physician who was diagnosed with metastatic renal cell (kidney) carcinoma this past February..............

This - cancer survivor for 15 years. I went to a few support groups and realized that I didnt have it as bad as the others. Left feeling good about myself and then embarrased for that. Good luck to you sir